Wednesday, March 29, 2017

What convoluted brain came up with Yellow Hood Series?

- author of The Yellow Hood Series – a
bestselling Young Adult series of steam-punk meets fairies and two other YA
novels in the post-apocalyptic-fantasy genre.

Welcome to my blog, Adam.
Your varied background offers numerous possibilities for turning to writing. I’m
interested to hear what you have to say on the subject.

1)You are creating three series. Did you have outlines or ideas for more than the first book when you started to
write? Did you decide on your overall story arc for the series in the
beginning?

When I
first started writing what would become Along
Came a Wolf (The Yellow Hoods, #1), I didn’t think I was writing a book. I wanted
to capture a story I’d told my daughter at bedtime. It transformed, added complexity,
and I had this inspiration. I could see where the world and the lead characters
could go. I wasn’t certain how the form would be until I the middle of Book 2 –
Breadcrumb Trail.

I didn’t have a
concrete plan, but knew the beats and where I wanted to land the story. It became
clear how I could make the series into a trilogy of series: The Yellow Hoods Series (Tee, Elly,
Richy as early teens), Mark of the Yellow
Hoods Series (about 3-5 years later), and then Legacy of The Yellow Hoods Series (w/Tee, Elly, Richy as adult
leaders).

Book 5 in the Yellow Hoods Series is done and ready to release on April 9th (April
7th in eBook) and I’m looking forward to bringing Mark of the Yellow Hoods to life in 2019/2020.

2)What is the average age of
your characters?Of your readers?

I have
the classic teen-trio of Tee, Elly and Richy and a significant supporting cast.
The Cochon brothers, Egelina-Marie, and Christina Creangle are in their 20s /
30s. Marcus Pieman, Nikolas Klaus, and Eleanor DeBoeuf Senior plus others are
in their 50s.

Consequently, my audience
is split. About 50% of my audience are ages 9 to 15, and about 45% of my
audience is 28+. It’s amazing to hear whom my readers see as being the true
principal characters.

3)Why did you choose to write
books? When did the shift from techie to author happen in your head?

4

At twelve,
I started to do two things: 1. Write stories, 2. Write Programs. To me, they
were two different ways of bringing ideas to life. Later I bailed out of
engineering and went into software. I earned an honours degree from the University
of Waterloo in computer science and philosophy. My technological career spanned
Microsoft, Silicon Valley, and more.

All the
while, I couldn’t give up writing. Like an addict trying and failing to stay
clean, I’d binge on every now and then and share the short stories with family
and friends. But life demanded that I focus on my career and family until 2009.

Health
issues derailed my life in 2009. As I tried to rebuild, I turned to writing to
get my emotions out and my head clear. For three years, writing an autobiography
was my focus and I realized that I could write a book. The initial feedback was
very strong, and I almost put that book out as the first step in my indie
career.

Conversations
with my wife showed me I wanted to replace my income as a software architect
with an author income, and that I thought it would take 5-8 years. Moreover, I
didn’t want to be the broken guy who fixed himself. I wanted to be known for my
imagination. I shelved the autobiography and started writing Along Came a Wolf. I’ve been the stay-at-home dad and writer since
2005.

4)And why write for the Young
Adult Market?

Many authors write for a
specific market, but I don’t. Instead, I think of who I want to enjoy my
stories and write for them. I also want a younger version of me who, at a
highly impressionable age, was able to enjoy the stories from one perspective,
and I want the adult me to enjoy them from another. As a software architect, I
constantly had to write or present ideas that addressed multiple audiences, so
it feels natural doing it in my stories.

5)You talk about your
Dyslexia and how you have work-arounds to deal with it. Tell us a bit abut that.

I didn’t know I was
dyslexic until I was about 19 years old. As time went on, I recognised both the
advantages and downside of my dyslexia. Find
out how I handle dyslexia as a writer in this video: http://tinyurl.com/j53vtuq

One obvious drawback of dyslexia is reading
speed. Instead of reading for ideas and inspiration, I turn to movies, TV,
articles, and conversation. My wife, an avid reader, talks to me about books. Whenever
she finishes reading one, we’ll discuss in detail all the aspects, and I get
some of the benefit of having read it. I won’t pick up neat turns of phrase, but that’s
okay. I don’t consider myself literary when I write. I’m more conversational.

We all
have some form of challenges. I have chronic pain, severe asthma, and dyslexia.
But my brain works great, I have a constant fountain of ideas inside me, and I
have the means to allow myself to write. There are far worse fates than having
this special gift.

Fast and fun questions. Please answer yes or no. Have you ever:

2.Been in a bar fight?Ah, how did you know this was part of the
same story as jumping out of the plane? I deny everything. EVERYTHING.

3.Gotten lost in a strange
city? Well, I have to say that it didn’t
stay strange for long. We became good friends, London and I. Now why King
Street changes its name and then reverts back, I’ll never know, but it was a
most interesting lesson for a 12 year old boy on his own with a paper map. Now,
Zagreb, Croatia was a different story altogether, but I’ll keep that for
another day.

5.Spent time skate-boarding
(with or without your children?)As a
teenager, I decided I was going to try and learn skate-boarding. Then, as a
slightly older and more injured teenager who realized he had a highly-visually
based sense of balance, I gave up that dream.